230 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



on the other, so as to be of an uniform size. For storing tlie 

 species thus collected a few tin canisters will be found most 

 convenient ; a layer of sawdust is placed at the bottom, and 

 then beetles, and so on alternately to the top. The sawdust 

 used in the tins should be damped (not welled) with a 

 mixture of spirit and one-twentieth part of carbolic acid, 

 which will effectually prevent mould or mites, and will bring 

 the specimens home perfectly fresh and clean. Small species, 

 or specimens from a particular locality, should be wrap})ed in 

 a piece of rag or tissue-paper, with a little sawdust, and the 

 name of the locality. The specimens collected in spirits 

 should be removed as soon as possible (in a few days at 

 farthest), and transferred to sawdust. When the tins are 

 lull, some more spirit and carbolic acid should be poured 

 in and the top soldered down : they will then keep for two 

 years at least. The advantages of this method are manifest, 

 especially in the absence of any danger of breakage or leak- 

 age ; and it is more than probable that a similar plan might 

 be employed with reptiles, fisljes, &c., but for these chloride 

 of zinc suggests itself as the most likely agent to be of 

 service. As the insects do not become rotten by the above 

 process, it is sometimes not so easy to set their legs in the 

 peculiar manner in vogue in this country, but they will have, 

 as a set-off, the advantage of being thoroughly fit for study. 

 When by any chance spirit cannot be obtained, they will 

 keep perfectly in dry sawdust, if the specimens are dried in 

 the air for a few hours first ; all that is necessary afterwards 

 being to rela.K them in the sawdust instead of removing 

 them from it. Jars or wide-mouthed pickle-bottles may of 

 course be used instead of tins, and are more air-tight, but 

 liable to break. — G. R. Crolch ; TJniversity Library, Cam- 

 hrirlge. 



Bomhyoc Cynthia. — A correspondence has of late been 

 going on in ' Science Gossip ' and other journals as to the 

 season of pupation of the silk-producing moth, Bombyx Cyn- 

 thia, the general impression being that the insect passes the 

 winter in the pupa state. I have to record a deviation from 

 this rule, if rule it be. In June last Mr. Ellis, of Batley, 

 kindly sent me eggs procured from moths which had passed 

 the winter as pupa3 : they reached me on the 2*2nd of June, 

 and, having hatched during the transit by post, 1 found the 



